Battledown

I have been without a camera for the last fortnight having dropped my phone. While that didn't stop activities in the workshop it did mean I couldn't photograph progress on the Buckjumper. The chassis is is now all but complete as can be seen from the photos below. There were a few issues, one of which was the brake hangers and pull rods. The instructions say that you need to bend the top pivot wire down and forward to ensure the pull rods clear the crankpins and coupling rods. Why not just put the holes in the right position, says I. So I did and it made life a lot easier. I also fabricated the brake cylinders that were very visible on the prototype but are not included in the kit. Basically complete chassis - just pick-ups to add. You can see the original etched brake pivot holes just above the actual pivots. The whole brake assembly is removable to aid painting and any subsequent maintenance, as are the cosmetic springs which are attached to a keeper plate that fixes to the central frame spacer. The underside of chassis showing brake linkage detail and cylinders, and the keeper plate for the cosmetic springs. You can see how tight clearances are for the crankpins, even though I repositioned the pivots.

So today I assembled the motor and gearbox - High Level Roadrunner Plus with D1 Extender, 45:1 gears and Mashima 1220 motor. Wheels are fitted and I have a basic rolling chassis. I'm off messing about on the river tomorrow so more at the weekend.

Today's task was to prepare and assemble the chassis frames and hornblocks. I decided to keep things simple and fix the rear axle with a compensation beam between the middle and front axles. I am modelling one of the locos that ran as a 2-4-0 with the coupling rods between the middle and front axle removed. This meant that I only had to accurately align the centre and rear axle to the coupling rods, with the front axle aligned by eye. One issue I had is the kit only comes with OO or EM spacers, the latter also being used for P4. I was not happy with that idea - you might only be talking about 1.6mm but the increased gap between wheels and frame is noticeable. Luckily I still have some perseverance universal spacer frets so was able to cobble together some replacement P4 spacers. Hornblocks are from High Level Kits. I used my Chassis2 Pro jig (from the much missed Eileen's Emporium) which shortens the task of fitting hornblocks and spacers and ensures that everything is square and aligned. Frames hornblocks and spacers laid out ready for assembly - note the original kit EM spacers at the top. One of the frame sides fitted to the Chassis2 Pro jig and hornblocks positioned ready for soldering Frames and horn blocks assembled - the Perseverance spacers do the job but are slightly thinner gauge so don't look as neat as the kit ones would have done It all fits neatly beneath the footplate.

So the first project in my new workshop is a Great Eatern E22 0-6-0, one of the series of locos known as Buckjumpers. This is a London Road Models kit, originally designed by Iain Rice and marketed under his Riceworks label. First up is the footplate which Mr Rice suggested is built first so that the chassis can be tested as it is is built. Here is one I prepared earlier!

At long last my new garden workshop is up and running. Having had to share the utility room with the domestic authorities, modelling time and space has been at a premium. Now I have my own exclusive space there is no excuse for not getting on with things in earnest.

I built this Metro some time back in the 1990s for the Alton Model railway Group. It has a Perseverance chassis and Gibson wheels and an X04 motor. It had a lot of use on their old Welles layout and the horn blocks had worn and it would no longer run smoothly. It will get new horn blocks, a High Level Roadrunner Plus gearbox and 1020FE motor and should be fine for another 25 years after that. I remember it being a nice kit to build.

Another model completed - this time a GNR J3 from a London Road Models kit. The GNR goods grey livery was much simpler than the Drummond passenger one thankfully!

It's been a long time since I posted on this thread. For a number of reasons that I needn't go into here I have not been able to do any serious modelling until fairly recently - let's just say that 2022 was devoid of any modelling time. However, I have been busy this year and have eventually finished that Finney T9. Having dropped it and damaged the rear steps, chimney and running plate it was relatively straight forward, though time consuming, to make the cosmetic repairs. The bent crank axle and inside motion required replacing, however, but it all went back together and runs reasonably well, although improvements are needed to the pick-ups.

I've had a gate set painted and fully lined in LSWR salmon & pink livery that have been waiting for a C14 for some 25 years. I know they were rebuilt with new cylinders and valve gear and subsequently never actually used on passenger services but that is a compromise I would be prepared to live with. So I look forward to having an excuse to buy one of your kits at last!

I've had the same issue - not only are they out of register but, in my opinion, the white lining is not as fine as it once was.

I built a number of Perseverance chassis kits back in the 1980s, all were designed by Rod Neep, both GWR and LSWR. One of these was for a T9 which I used for a Wills (now South Eastern) Finecast loco kit. I still have it and it still runs. I also built a Westward 700 which I also still have, although it needs a bit of work to get it running again and to repair some of the ravages of time. Again, the loco and tender chassis were designed by Rod Neep. I still have an unmade Perseverence chassis kit for a GWR large prairie with the original Puffers price label, together with a Gibson OO/EM wheelset if anyone is interested.

I have a separate thread on it - I hope the link works but if not you should be able to find it. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/168977-adams-t3-kit-build-retrospective-ramblings/#

I concur with Narrow Planet, they did my plates for LSWR T3 No 561 and have also done various works plates, GER and NER plates for me. They put correct builders numbers and year on to order. Very reasonably priced too.

I clean my work with 50/50 methylated spirit/water mix after every session, rinse in warm water then dry using an old hair dryer - being bald its the only use I have for one! Pre painting I scrub with 'Shiny Sinks' using a soft brush, rinse under the tap using the soft brush, until it runs completely clear, then dry with the hairdryer. I have followed this with a dip in cellulose thinners but am not sure if this is really necessary.

Looking on their website they have a huge product list that seem to be for solder baths and industrial circuit cards. Which do you use for, say, brass, nickel silver, steel and whitemetal?

I've still not been able to get to the work bench and am unlikely to until after the weekend, so here's another loco built many years ago - a Wills (now South East) Finecast Schools Class. In fact, it was this that got me into railway modelling. It was a Christmas present from my wife in 1986 following a suggestion from a work colleague. I built it out of the box as Stowe, using the Wills cast chassis, Romford wheels and an XO4 open frame motor. Fast forward about 15 years and I stripped the paint and modified the cab to portray Charterhouse in early guise sans smoke defectors. I built a new chassis from a Comet kit, using the Wills cylinder castings (the Comet ones were over size), Alan Gibson wheels and a Portescap RG4-1416 motor/gearbox. The tender received similar treatment with a new chassis. Both loco and tender chassis are compensated and pick up up is from wipers on the loco driver and tender wheels. Additional detailing, both proprietary and scratch built and a new paint job, with light weathering, transformed it into a decent model - such was the development of my capabilities over the years. It still looks good and runs really well.

That is basically what Martin Finney did with his 4-4-0 kits. Well, those for the LSWR anyway - and also for the M7 0-4-4T and Radial Tank 4-4-2. Compensated drivers and a rigid bogie pivoted on the rear axle with spring load centralling. It works for me anyway.

Here's a video of the T9 chassis with full inside motion on the rolling road. It's a little lumpy due, I think, to my having slightly distorted one or both of the brass cranks when assembling the wheels onto the axle. If I can't tweak it enough I will have to build a new crank axle assembly, which means a new inside motion kit with new cranks, connecting rods, eccentrics and valve rod assembly. Failing that fit a straight axle and just leave the motion as cosmetic.

My addiction is four-coupled locos, but I sometimes wonder if a six-coupled predilection would make life a bit easier. 4-4-0s and, in particular, 0-4-4Ts can be very tricky.

If you do decide to go ahead with this please do let me know as I (and I'm sure others) would also like some so could go to the same supplier. I'm not necessarily suggesting a discount per say as obviously it'd get very complicated no doubt. I have just spoken to Brian Mosby of 247 developments and he will add No 828 to his next batch. Just email him on orders.247developments@btinternet.com.

PDK does all the Drummond 4-4-0 locos, 700 and M7 but none of his 4-6-0s, as far as I can tell. Moreover, his kits for the T9, S11, L12, D15 and 700 classes are for the superheated boilers with extended smokebox which is only natural as that is how they ran for the majority of their lives.

Thanks - when I wrote this I did wonder how long it would take for someone to show me an example!

This is a LSWR T14 'Paddleboat' I built from a Nu Cast white metal kit about 30 years ago - frightening! Nu Cast produced two versions; the Urie superheated one and the later Maunsell one with modified footplate and splashers. Perverse as I am, I decided I wanted to build the original Drummond saturated one so I used the Urie kit as the basis. The smokebox had to be shortened and I fabricated the cross-water tube covers from plastic card. I also fabricated and purloined much additional detailing. The valve gear rocker assembly above the footplate was made from a special etch I drew up and commissioned from Bill Bedford - this was back in the day when he did special one-off commissions from his lair in the Shetlands. I used the kit chassis which was milled brass and compensated it using Flexi-Chas components from Perseverance. Wheels are from Alan Gibson, as are the coupling rods. The rest of the valve gear was from the kit. It is powered by a Portescap RG4-1620 motor-gearbox but has never been a good runner. In retrospect, I probably should have fabricated my own frames or, being a OO model, kept the kit chassis as rigid. So, a lot of kit and parts suppliers from the past, some of them sadly long since demised. I could not see myself producing such a model again but I love the prototype and there is still no kit, nor is there ever likely to be one. Martin Finney has scratch built a beautiful one for his Semley layout but I have never seen another 4mm model of an original T14 in Drummond livery.

They are excellent kits but require concentration, care and patience.

Having finished the T3 some time ago I have spent very little time at the workbench. I have a sizeable number of projects, both new and uncompleted. I have four locos awaiting painting, one part built, one part painted and eight waiting to be started, to say nothing of various items of rolling stock in a similar variety of states. First up will be to complete a Finney T9 I started a number of years ago but still need to line and detail the loco. It is in Drummond livery which is a bit more intricate than Adams'. I have been using the Pressfix transfer & fine brush method to good effect on the tender but the loco has splashers and cab sides to line so is not so straightforward. Here is the tender. It is basically complete other than fixing the rear buffer beam, which has started to separate from the footplate, then a coat of varnish and the fitting of buffers and coupling that will be done at the same time as the engine. Photos of the loco will follow when it is lined. Until then I may post some photos of other models completed or awaiting painting.